Thoughts and sentiments on the evil of slavery and other writings
By: Quobna Ottobah Cugoano ; edited with an introduction and notes by Vincent Carretta.
Contributors: Carretta, Vincent.
Series: Penguin classics
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 198
Subjects: Slavery.
Description: "Born in present-day Ghana, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano was kidnapped at the age of thirteen and sold into slavery by his fellow Africans in 1770; he worked in the brutal plantation chain gangs of the West Indies before being freed in England. His Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery is the most direct criticism of slavery by a writer of African descent. Cugoano refutes pro-slavery arguments of the day, including slavery's supposed divine sanction; the belief that Africans gladly sold their own families into slavery; that Africans were especially suited to its rigors; and that West Indian slaves led better lives than European serfs. Exploiting his dual identity as both an African and a British citizen, Cugoano daringly asserted that all those under slavery's yoke had a moral obligation to rebel, while at the same time he appealed to white England's better self."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Originally published : Thoughts and sentiments on the evil and wicked traffic of the slavery and commerce of the human species ... London, 1787.